Unai Emery insists his players will continue to take it game by game as Arsenal challenge for a Champions League position on two fronts in the final months of the season.
The Gunners boosted their chances of finishing in the Premier League top four with an important 2-0 win over Manchester United at the Emirates on Sunday and now turn attention to the Europa League where we must overcome a 3-1 deficit against Rennes on Thursday if we are to secure safe passage to the quarter-finals.
After goals from Granit Xhaka and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang saw off Ole Gunnar Solksjaer’s in-form Red Devils – and in the process reduced the gap on third place Sp*rs to a solitary point – Emery preached the importance of being consistent in the final eight league games.
“We were positive when we were struggling in the table and we took balance in our mind when we were worse – and now after these victories we can be positive, but it won’t change our idea,” he told his post-game press conference.
“We need to continue and it will be difficult, and our style and way and thinking will be game by game.
“We’re in two competitions now, the Premier League and also the Europa League. We are going to play the next match here against Newcastle in three weeks and that’s a lot.
“Our focus now is Thursday. We are happy today, we are going to analyse the match and also in the table we are better, but Manchester United, Chelsea and Tottenham are with us.
“We are going to play some difficult matches and being consistent is very important. At the moment I think we are playing consistent in each match and today we showed everybody that.
“We were calm, showed passion and continued improving. We know that for example on Thursday one match can change a lot with one red card or goal, so controlling our emotions is very important. We need to keep this consistency in our mind.”
Since losing at home in the first game of the season, we’ve now gone 15 games unbeaten in the league at the Emirates, securing 41 points along the way. In addition to the win over United, the run has included high-profile victories over Chelsea and Sp*rs and a thrilling draw with Liverpool.
Given that roll call, Emery played down suggestions that the latest scalp was the best of the lot.
“I don’t know if it’s the best performance this season,” he reflected. “I think we’re improving and also I think we’re being competitive in different matches, away from home and against different teams.
“We responded and sometimes you’ve seen different systems and different players, but above all, we can feel today very proud of every player.
“Above all, I want to say thank you to our supporters because they helped us a lot and we can create a big atmosphere like today for the next matches and for Thursday.
“I think it’s very important. The players did very well with a very big spirit and big commitment for the work we’ve done.”
I want to hear Xhaka’s post match comments again and again, when he said De gea should answer the question about the goal better.
Mustafi didn’t play and there was no error.
De Gea never knew what hit him.
Xhakarocket!
No Mustafi no cry
It’s very important to be consistent all the time.
Consistently consistent
Consistent, by its very nature, is inconsistent.
We’ve been consistent in patches this season 🙂 Wolves away is the hardest fixture, those guys are playing great right now. Do we want the miracle on Thursday so we continue in Europa or is it a distraction we don’t need any more considering Chelsea, Spuds, and Man U will be distracted/tired from European play? I don’t think i care as much if we go out of Europe now that we are 1 point back on 3rd. Might be an unpopular opinion, just being pragmatic. We don’t exactly have a deep squad right now and we need to do everything… Read more »
Oh no, mate. You’re already justifying a loss. Let’s win them all, dammit!
Can we some more articles on the ManU match please – real or made-up. Can’t get enough 🙂
At least we’re consistently inconsistent
The improvement that we’ve seen in team since Emery has become the manager has been remarkable and most notable against the other top 6 sides. The naivety and lack of professionalism we approached those game under Wenger has gone and no longer do we look like we’re going to fall for every trick in the book. To the contrary, it’s Xhaka taking long range shots and playing the windy conditions, it’s Lacazette earning a cheap penalty, both the exact kind of thing we’d fall prey too but never do ourselves. We’re actually playing like a professional football team again! There’s… Read more »
Consistency comes from the top and trickles down to the players. Consistency comes from a consistent style of play and consistent selection. I know people wanted tactical flexibility, but there is such a thing as too much. What we needed was balance and its hard to get that when 9 months in, we still don’t know what the head coach is trying to do. Consistent teams have a set style of play which is only tweaked for tactical reasons, not entirely changed. Consistent team selections would also help develop understanding and combinations among players, now if you choose to consistently… Read more »
The squad is above average at best. 6th best in the league. We don’t have the quality to dominate sides by one style of play neither should we. The flexibility a lows us to extract the maximum and more out of the squad, by exploiting opp weakness, or mitigating ours.